Slept about 4 hours. Even on the other side of the planet, my body still likes to wake up at 8. Apparently time zones have nothing to do with it. Wandered about the beach a bit a bit and found internets and met one of my neighbours who would become a constant companion. His name is ‘George’ from Iran. His name has been changed to protect his identity. He’s been living in India for about 5 years as a student and is currently partying his ass off until his arranged marriage takes place in a couple months. He’s a little afraid of his future wife that knows nothing but the studious boy he’s been portrayed as. I mentioned it’s highly likely she’s thinking the same thing and to just be open and honest from the start, he might be surprised. He’s pretty much the comedian of the place and occasionally introduces himself as ‘Insane from Iran’. You can tell he’s been here a while in that he adds where he’s from in the introduction as he knows the question will be asked within seconds anyway if he hadn’t already provided the answer.

Heard from Jelena, YAY! And Adam and Sandra, YAY! And made plans to meet at Shorebar and then check out the Saturday night market. I had no idea how to get there so ‘George’ offered to show me and we hung out with his friends until Jelena and her friends showed up. Later on Adam (after a brutal 16 hour bus ride from Bangalore!) and Sandra arrived so I had 3 much loved Albertan faces to keep me company, bliss! We sat and chatted until it was too late to go to the market, and continued to chat until Shorebar packed up and turned out the lights. Adam and Sandra made plans to join me in Anjuna the next day as they were both staying in boring Panjim.

Slept in finally and got Adam and Sandra settled at Sai Prasad and it was time for the beach!! We had some ‘finger chips’ (fries) and booze and then Adam and I ran across the beach like 5 year olds and jumped in the ocean. We thought we had avoided most of the rocks but I still scraped my ankle, at least stingy salt water is good for it. We danced around the water for a bit before drying off and heading back to do the lame but necessary things like laundry. What a difference in mid season! It’s ready the same day! No having to wait 3 days in monsoon with nothing every really drying and a musty smell that never goes away.

Then it was off to Hilltop, where I had gone dancing last April. Much more crowded, much more people to meet, and a lot of fun. I danced, Adam and Papi played with Poi, Sandra hooped. I played with both the poi and the hoop and managed to not injure myself or anyone around, but just barely. Law here means the music shuts down at 10:00. Or depending on who’s been paid off, sometime between 10 & 4. This time it was around 11:00 and then everybody’s left wondering what’s next. A fellow in the crowd happened to be a fire juggler. Another from South Korea, happened to have a drum. So a big semi circle developed around the drunken fire juggler with some serious skills and the crowd created a rhythm with the drums, clapping, someone had a shaker, another kinda beatboxed for a bit. Once the juggling was done, he joined up with another fellow and they played with fire staffs and did some crazy cool stuff. Afterward, there was a lull and I was all, ‘SANDRA GET IN THERE!’. I ran over to the drummer on the other side and his rubber arm was twisted to play more and then Sandra worked her hoop magic for a while. The crowd dispersed when the lights started going out and we hung out with a couple from Puna until security finally convinced us to leave. 2 nights with Adam and we shut it down both times :)

In the morning, we did a quick run to the market before Adam had to leave. Thankfully, we passed an elephant so he was all happy as he hadn’t seen one yet and he’s been in India since Jan. Somehow after that and him packing, there was still time for a beer but just barely. While we were sitting a young Russian fellow came back from the rocks gushing blood from his foot, I’ve never seen so much blood all at once in real life. He just kept saying ‘no problem’ while they finally convinced him to elevate it while I went for my first aid supplies. He got bandaged up with my antibiotic ointment from my dogbite in Turkey and sterile gauze (my first aid kit is very international with the random supplies I’ve picked up along the way). We tried to tell him to not go in the sand and keep it clean but he proceeded to get a tattoo right there and I saw him the with the same bandage the next day, and it was filthy. It’s that whole youthful invincibility thing I suppose, I just hope it doesn’t get infected. Somehow in the bloody chaos, Adam made it to the airport in time and after several delays and missed connections, made it to Kolkutta where he’ll be working until he returns to Canada in April.